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Interviews

Billy Morgan On Landing the Quad

Photo: Nate Gallagher/Red Bull

After the internet ruckuss of last night – phones and screens melting as the snowboarding world erupted online, even spilling over into the likes of The Guardian – we managed to grab a quick chat with the quad corker himself: Billy Morgan.

Yesterday he pulled off what many people thought was impossible in Livigno, today he’s already back on UK soil and headed to a medical appointment before finally going in for surgery on his bust ACL next week.

He’s been after this one for a while, but had never found the right jump for it until now. Whilst Billy is many things, above all else he’s pretty modest about his abilities, so he was never going to shout about a potential quad until it was safely in the can. But now it’s done and dusted, and whilst the internet fights over whether or not it’s a good thing for snowboarding, Mr Morgan sounded both stoked and relieved at the same time.

Whitelines: First up Billy, congrats! Was this planned out or was it a spur of the moment type thing?
Billy Morgan: I’ve been wanting to do a quad for a while now, but out of about four different jumps we went to this winter, this was the one felt the most right. And yeah, it was the last day of my season riding… Shit hit the fan.

WL: Was the jump specially built?
BM: It was the old Nine Knights jump [in Livigno], they had all the snow there already they just reshaped it and gave it a bit more wang. It was banging man, I would love to ride that jump all the time. Doubles were difficult because they were so slow, you almost had to rip them a little bit.

WL: Yeah you had to open out at the end of the quad even – we’ve always thought you had more time than you needed on your triples and it was the same on that too.
BM: Yeah especially on that jump, even triples on that jump felt slow. It was a big, beautiful jump.

Photo: Red Bull
 The hate is… It does get to me a little bit. It’s kind of annoying, I wish people could understand that there are so many different types of snowboarding you can do and nobody is telling people how to go snowboarding.

WL: How are you feeling about the inevitable “Urgh, I’d rather see a steazy back 180 or a method…” comments?
BM: The hate is… It does get to me a little bit. It’s kind of annoying, I wish people could understand that there are so many different types of snowboarding you can do and nobody is telling people how to go snowboarding. It’s not like I’m saying ‘triple corks are the only way’. Snowboarding is what you want to go snowboarding for y’know? There’s so many different things you can do in snowboarding, just have fun man! It’s a free sport, do whatever you want – I happen to like going upside down a lot!

“If I ever do a quad I’ll eat my hat…” Oh yeah? Photo: Nate Gallagher/Red Bull

WL: We were reading through the interview you did with us maybe 18 months ago, the pre-Sochi one, you were saying someone is ‘going to wang one out eventually.’
BM: Yeah, it was gonna happen wasn’t it? If it wasn’t me it would’ve been Yuki [Kadono] or Maxence [Parrot] or any one of the handful of other riders that could do it. I’m surprised Yuki hasn’t done it already! Thought he would have done one by now…

WL: Kinda puts a downer on someone doing a pipe triple now eh?
BM: Yeah, I saw a couple of clips of Shaun [White] trying one… Mate, pipe is hardcore! You don’t have much margin for error, it’s not like you can just say you’ll send it down the landing: you gotta land on a 90 degree, razor sharp, bullet-proof ice edge. Fuck that.

WL: And when’s the quid coming?
BM: [Laughs] Fuck that. It was pretty stupid, I hope it doesn’t go any further. You’ll have to separate the sport into two aren’t you? You’ll have to have aerials riders, we’ll have like hard boots and be on like a mono-board, just hoon into it and just go for it! No grabs!

WL: Seriously though, what’s next? Anything else you want to try still when you’re back next winter?
BM: Yeah I’ll be back in Breckenridge. I’m stoked I’ve done it, no I just want to play out the rest of my career as it goes y’know? Ride it out and just shred yeah? I’ve spent a lot of years training, now I’d like to just go snowboarding.

WL: Come out and do some seasons in Morzine again?
BM: That’s what I’m talking about. I was meant to come out for a week but I just went and got drunk at the Brits instead.

WL: Thanks Billy!
BM: You should put together a wanted poster – Paddy Graham said to me yesterday there should be one saying ’Wanted: For Ruining Snowboarding!’

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